Cathy C. (cathyskye) -
In Dead Man Dancing, John Galligan has once again found the perfect mix of characters, setting, story, and action to keep me absorbed from first page to last. These harder-edged Bad Axe County books show how no part of the country is safe from crime-- even rural areas with rugged and remote terrain. In this second book, readers are confronted with White Nationalists and the resulting rhetoric these people like to spout as well as the senseless hate crimes that follow them.
Dead Man Dancing isn't always an easy book to read. White Nationalists can make my blood pressure spike faster than almost anything else, but Galligan's characters and story-telling ability are so good that I had to keep reading to find out how everything would be resolved.
Now about these characters... Sheriff Heidi Kick has a new deputy from Texas who's slowly teaching her Spanish. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him in future books. On the surface, Heidi's husband, Harley, seems to be the usual spouse who hates sharing his partner with the demands of law enforcement, but readers get to see him in a different light in this book. He is not a two-dimensional man. Neither are his and Heidi's reactions to the demands of their daughter, Opie, and that's another situation I'm looking forward to seeing move along in the next book.
Even secondary characters have lives of their own in Dead Man Dancing. Some residents show us how some people can live their lives wearing blinders while others show us how-- after being kicked over and over again while they're down-- they can make one bad decision after another. The real question for these people is-- will they always make the wrong choice?
One of my favorite quotes in the book came when Heidi-- almost dead on her feet from exhaustion-- is told by her dispatcher to go home and get some rest. Heidi's response? "You know what happens if I go home? As soon as I get there, right about the time I get this uniform off, you call me." This is just one of the many reasons why I was never cut out for a life in law enforcement, and it was good to see the sheriff spell it out so bluntly and truthfully.
There are so many reasons to like this book, and one of them is how skillfully Galligan weaves area history into the narrative. This part of Wisconsin had former slaves move in, and one of them was known for building round barns. Not only was this bit of history fascinating but it added depth to both the story and one of Galligan's characters.
John Galligan's Bad Axe County mysteries may tackle uncomfortable subjects, but his story-telling abilities and the characters he populates the county with will always keep me coming back for more. I've encountered few law enforcement officers as dedicated as Heidi Kick to keeping their jurisdictions safe, and that's just the sort of character I like to read about.
(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley)
Dead Man Dancing isn't always an easy book to read. White Nationalists can make my blood pressure spike faster than almost anything else, but Galligan's characters and story-telling ability are so good that I had to keep reading to find out how everything would be resolved.
Now about these characters... Sheriff Heidi Kick has a new deputy from Texas who's slowly teaching her Spanish. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him in future books. On the surface, Heidi's husband, Harley, seems to be the usual spouse who hates sharing his partner with the demands of law enforcement, but readers get to see him in a different light in this book. He is not a two-dimensional man. Neither are his and Heidi's reactions to the demands of their daughter, Opie, and that's another situation I'm looking forward to seeing move along in the next book.
Even secondary characters have lives of their own in Dead Man Dancing. Some residents show us how some people can live their lives wearing blinders while others show us how-- after being kicked over and over again while they're down-- they can make one bad decision after another. The real question for these people is-- will they always make the wrong choice?
One of my favorite quotes in the book came when Heidi-- almost dead on her feet from exhaustion-- is told by her dispatcher to go home and get some rest. Heidi's response? "You know what happens if I go home? As soon as I get there, right about the time I get this uniform off, you call me." This is just one of the many reasons why I was never cut out for a life in law enforcement, and it was good to see the sheriff spell it out so bluntly and truthfully.
There are so many reasons to like this book, and one of them is how skillfully Galligan weaves area history into the narrative. This part of Wisconsin had former slaves move in, and one of them was known for building round barns. Not only was this bit of history fascinating but it added depth to both the story and one of Galligan's characters.
John Galligan's Bad Axe County mysteries may tackle uncomfortable subjects, but his story-telling abilities and the characters he populates the county with will always keep me coming back for more. I've encountered few law enforcement officers as dedicated as Heidi Kick to keeping their jurisdictions safe, and that's just the sort of character I like to read about.
(Review copy courtesy of the publisher and Net Galley)
